Paralowie Community

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay) (15:41): Today, I rise to talk about the largest suburb in my electorate, the suburb of Paralowie, home to 16½ thousand people made up of 4½ thousand families. It is a very popular suburb for families because it has affordable housing and a diversity of housing options, and because it also has near access to the Little Para River Trail—a beautiful green area in my electorate.

Recently, I had the opportunity to bring together some of the leaders in Paralowie—people who are speaking out for their community. The first person I want to talk about is Brett Herbert, who recently appeared on The Project, a national television show, raising the issue about hoons in his street, and in particular those riding motorbikes—or monkey bikes as we call them—at high speeds causing smoke and causing people to feel unsafe in the area.

While that street already had speed humps, that did not stop these hoons. They went through the speed humps, which had gaps in them. I reached out to Brett and I said to him, 'I think we need to find a solution and a way forward.' I have to say that, through conversation with the City of Salisbury and South Australia Police, I was delighted to see that we were able to trial a pilot program, and that is a pilot program run by the City of Salisbury for mobile CCTV cameras—very clear, very obvious—and, with the continued support of SAPOL, we are actually stopping these hoons for the first time.

Brett set out to make a difference because he feared for his children’s' safety when they walked home from school. Can I tell you that he took on this challenge, and not everyone received it well. He got a lot of hassle from people who like to use that opportunity to speed as fast as they can. So, it was his determination, and I was really happy to work with him to advocate for a practical solution to this problem.

The other person I met with was Sarah Caldwell-Turner. If you meet Sarah, you will never, ever forget her. She has amazing energy and is an inspiration to many people in Paralowie. Sarah has been the governing council chair for Paralowie R-12 for quite some time, and she is there to grow our community, to achieve education outcomes, and to support people into the workforce. When we talked about what could make Paralowie more family friendly, Sarah was quick to talk to me about lighting. She feels that it is not adequate at the moment, that people using transport coming home from school or work feel unsafe, and it is something we need to change. She also loves our Little Para River Trail and calls it 'the hidden gem of Paralowie'.

Another person I met with was Jo Clark. Jo came into the area with a new development called Settlers Farm more than 20 years ago. She is heavily involved in the Salisbury West Sports Club. I recently worked with Jo, who together with SACA, SANFL and Novita is going to pilot an all-abilities program for inclusion at the Salisbury West Sports Club. Jo was very driven to achieve this. She was very focused on having a family-friendly sporting club in the north that welcomes children of all abilities.

When three dynamic people come together, you naturally talk about future opportunities. We talked about a Paralowie progress association, with a key focus on making Paralowie family friendly. What more can we do to make it better, to make it safer, and a great place to live? This group is going to come together, they are going to be listening to the needs of the people in the area, they are going to advocate for people in Paralowie, and it will empower them to have the clearest voice to all levels of government.

I am inspired by this group of people. I met them in different instances, they came together, we had a conversation, and now we are looking forward to a brighter future.